Hyderabad Bloggers’ Meet 2013: Enabling Change Through Social Media

HYDERABAD BLOGGERS’ MEET (HBM) 2013

Leading Bloggers from across the nation met up on the occasion of the Hyderabad Bloggers’ Meet 2013 held on January 20, 2013 at ITC Kakatiya. The theme was Enabling Change through Social media. An invitation only event, it was organized entirely through the efforts of Hyderabad city’s prominent and passionate bloggers.

HBM 2013 AS IT HAPPENED

The tone for the meeting was set by the coordinator, Subhorup Dasgupta of Subho’s Jejune Diet, who shared his vision of how blogging could be used to help people re-evaluate their thinking, values and choices. The event included four sessions on topics of interest to bloggers and social media activists, each presented by respected names from that particular domain. Satish Kumar, CEO of CoolPCTips, introduced the participants to the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization, sharing best practices to increase visibility of blogs to new readers.

This was followed by a panel presentation on “From Blogging to Getting Published”, by Shankari Sundaram, Linda Ashok, and Anuradha Goyal. This discussion revealed the rapidly changing paradigm of publishing and the growing acceptability of innovative business models and emerging technologies. The session presented insights into creating manuscripts, handling copyright issues, what to look out for in agreements, and models of revenue sharing.

Anuradha Goyal, an acclaimed travel writer and blogger, presented the next session on niche blogging. She shared her experiences with a wide range of issues, from traveling safely, photography, intellectual property issues and monetizing.

The final session was presented by eminent social media activist, political commentator and historian, Ratnakar Sadasyula. Titled “Social Media Activism”, the presentation shared how the collective reach of social media could transform empathy into concrete action for social change. He shared examples from the recent anti-rape movement to illustrate the power of the social media. He emphasized that the most important contribution that social media could make was to instill a sense of hope and optimism by highlighting the positive action being taken by activists in many areas which were not known to a lot of people.

This was followed by an unusual gifting session. As part of the invitations, participants had been requested to bring along gifts from among their possessions that they cherished. These were then distributed to the participants randomly, while the gift giver explained why that particular item was special to them. The gifts included author-signed books, prize winning photographic prints from the photographer himself, games and puzzles from gaming experts, books on culture and art, music CDs, personal grooming items, household items, bags, clothing, pens, and even chocolate bars! Everyone went home with several gifts – gifts from the heart. The event was followed by informal networking over dinner. Certainly, a night to remember for each attendee!!

HBM: BOOST TO HYDERABAD’S BLOGGING COMMUNITY

The meet was unique by its organic nature. It was organized by bloggers with the sole objective of community building and strengthening their social commitment. The entire program design and execution was done digitally using social media. While there were give-aways and gifts, these were funded entirely by the participants themselves. Even the event partners who supported the event did so with no strings attached. The event was partnered by ITC Hotels, Big Basket – the online grocers, Blend of Tea – a curated catalog of fine tea, and Maxthon India.